Five major hindrances to counterterrorism efforts

Rachel Marsden

4/30/2013 10:07:00 AM - Rachel Marsden

PARIS -- In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, it's only natural to
ask why some terrorists are only caught after they've inflicted carnage on
innocent civilians. What went wrong?

Here are a few significant reasons why authorities still manage to miss
terrorism until it's too late:

1. It doesn't help that U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
understated the threat when he told Congress in March that counterterrorism
efforts "have degraded core al-Qaeda to a point that the group is probably
unable to carry out complex, large-scale attacks in the West." So I guess
it's all over now that "core al-Qaeda" isn't issuing official membership
cards anymore? I'm pretty sure that setting off a bomb somewhere and talking
about jihad with your mom while planning trips to al-Qaeda-infested regions
of the globe is all it takes to join up these days.

Naturally, Clapper's words were largely misconstrued to suggest that the
terrorist group was no longer a threat. That was just a month before
cookware in the hands of junior jihadists using tactics from the official
al-Qaeda playbook would send Boston and the nation into a terror panic. As
for the complexity of the attacks -- who cares? Does the IQ of the terrorist
or the craftsmanship of the bomb really matter as long as it successfully
detonates?

2. People who think that everything is a government plot to take away their
freedoms are a ubiquitous obstruction to counterterrorism operations. They
somehow figure that the same government that loses their tax return every
other year and can't manage to pass public-safety legislation is somehow
capable of coordinating elaborate terrorist hoaxes as a cover for what they
really want: unfettered molestation of every airline passenger.

My personal favorites: those who label every terrorist event a "false
flag" -- a term they likely learned via osmosis when they fell asleep while
reading a John Le Carré novel, making them instant experts on subversion
strategy. It's these morons, becoming increasingly mainstream, to whom
intelligence agencies cater when they fail to aggressively pursue leads due
to how counterterrorism operations might ultimately be perceived, barring a
major investigative breakthrough.

3. A culture of complacency among various government authorities responsive
to bleeding-heart baddie-huggers ultimately leads to negligence, with risks
festering to the point of full-blown threat. We've learned that there were
plenty of warnings about the Boston bombing suspects, notably from Russian
intelligence and the CIA.

One of the two allegedly al-Qaeda-linked suspects recently charged in Canada
with plotting to target a Toronto-to-New York train had previously faced a
deportation hearing, and his refugee claim was rejected because he had
already racked up five fraud convictions during his short stay in Canada. He
managed to obtain residency by arguing that as a "Palestinian by blood"
(despite being born in the United Arab Emirates), he had no home nation to
which he could be deported.

4. Western nations have been far too quick to distribute citizenship and its
accompanying privileges like candy as a matter of official policy, ignoring
potentially problematic ideology in favor of superficial values like
"diversity."

As a result, some Russian immigrants aren't recognized as Islamists but
rather just "ethnic Chechens," as was the case with the Boston bombing
suspects and also with a Canadian citizen of Chechen origin who was among
the leaders of an attack that killed several dozen hostages at an Algerian
gas plant earlier this year.

5) There's a general lack of understanding of terrorists and the nature of
their allegiances. Basically, they have none. They'll work with anyone who
will serve their objectives today, then double-cross the same allies
tomorrow. Anyone projecting any morality onto their alliances will end up
confused at best and dead at worst.

Take Syrian al-Qaeda, for example: Jabhat al-Nusra. Its members loathe the
West and Israel as much as Hezbollah does. However, they're fighting against
Assad along with the West, and actively attacking Iran-backed,
Assad-supporting Hezbollah. It's this kind of convolution that recently made
some Canadians ask, "Why would al-Qaeda-linked suspects in Canada wanting to
blow up a train allegedly be getting funding from al-Qaeda in Iran when Iran
is Shiite and al-Qaeda is Sunni and those two hate each other? This is
obviously nonsense!" Right -- because Iran has never funded al-Qaeda against
Western interests before.

It helps to remember the terrorist golden rule: Every one of these groups
just wants to be in charge. And they will try to knock off any and all other
parties systemically until that happens. Go ahead -- just try wedging
reason, diplomacy or integrity into that.